Since its founding in 1810, Yale School of Medicine has been committed to training physicians and physician-scientists to lead their fields in addressing our nation’s health challenges.
Today, Women’s Health Research at Yale (WHRY) is working to integrate contemporary data-driven information about women’s health and the influence of sex as a biological variable (SABV) on health that was not previously available in the Yale School of Medicine curriculum.
The WHRY team working on this initiative includes Carolyn M. Mazure, PhD, Kelsey Martin, MD (WHRY’s Associate Director for Medical Education), Margaret Pisani, MD (Professor of Internal Medicine), Haleigh Larson (’18, ’25 MD, former WHRY Undergraduate Fellow), and Aeka Guru (’25, former WHRY Undergraduate Fellow).
Teaching medical students about the health of women and men is crucial in terms of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of disease as well as sex-specific clinical manifestations, disease progression, response to treatment, and health promotion. This ensures that future physicians are better prepared to provide optimal care to all. Moreover, it provides the foundation necessary for physician-scientists to uncover both biological mechanisms of disease and social determinants of health that generate new interventions and inform clinical practice for women and men.
The first step in making curriculum change is identifying areas where the health of women or the influence of sex on health is not currently taught to the next generation of physicians and physician-scientists. Assessing the broad scope of content within the medical school curriculum is an expansive and work-intensive effort. Consequently, as initially suggested by Larson, the team applied artificial intelligence (AI) to assess course material for data-based content. This includes analysis of all pre-clerkship courses, including the case-based workshops that are used in preparing students for their clinical rotations.
“There are a growing number of AI tools out there, but when considering the complexity and content-heavy nature of a medical school curriculum, we found a tool that was specifically engineered to process and query higher education documents. Our selection ended up being a great choice - it encrypts any files you upload, is adept at extracting salient themes from academic materials, and offers data-driven suggestions that are easily verifiable,” says Larson, who also serves on the Women’s Health Research at Yale Advisory Council.
The team now uses AI to evaluate whether course content includes key data on women’s health and SABV and to suggest where clinically actionable content can be incorporated. The result of this work has shown that implementation of AI tools for this purpose is more efficient, accurate, and effective than human assessment alone.
Next steps include recommending data to teaching faculty for inclusion in the curriculum. A key group essential to progress is the Women’s Health Equity Champions that WHRY has recruited from our teaching faculty. These champions include faculty members from multiple medical fields who are experts in their specialties, focus on SABV, and identify emerging data on women’s health and sex differences within their specialties that are essential to teach.
After change is implemented, the team will again use AI to re-evaluate the curriculum and determine if new information is successfully included in teaching material. The results of this work, along with a blueprint of how it can be used by other schools, is under review for publication. Ultimately, this initiative aims to transform medical school curricula across the nation, ensuring women’s health and SABV are incorporated appropriately, leading to better patient care and improved health for all.